Yes, the mask just won’t fit my nose. No matter how I tweak or adjust it, there’s a gap that lets air out, and it goes to my eyes.
I switched from a full face mask to the Airfit that @BippityBoppityBoo mentioned above. It has been a game changer for the second time! I wore the full face one for years and years, then I started not sleeping as well with it. The hose coming out of the top of the Airfit was wonderful! And I’m able to tighten this mask enough for it to work, but not so tight it hurts.
My daughter needed a new CPAP machine when hers died, but let it go for 3 years when life got in the way. She finally went to the doctor in June and was sent home with a sleep study machine, but was told it would take 2 months to even receive a new CPAP. They called her the very next morning and told her she’d stopped breathing 110 times per hour, and to come in and pick up a CPAP immediately - she’d jumped to the head of the line. She’s had it for 3 months now and feels like a new person. It took her about a week to get more than 6 hours sleep, but even so, that was 6 straight hours more than she’d been getting.
Plus everyone else in the house can sleep without earplugs.
Two weeks now with the machine. The app tells me I’m down to usually 2 or 3 events per hour. The other night it was .7. I’ve only needed a nap once, and that was probably more because I drank the night before, which I don’t do much any more.
I switched to a different size nasal pillow because I was getting consistent leakage out of my left nostril no matter how I adjusted the strap, especially when I was on my back. The larger pillows worked for a while, but last night I was getting the same leakage. I don’t know if I have a weird left nostril or what.
I have sleep apnea but I couldn’t tolerate the CPAP device. However I tried to adjust it I was getting too much air and swallowing a lot of it. This led to bloating and GAS, GAS, GAS! It was gross, and I didn’t feel any better or more productive during the day.
I can’t use a dental device either, ever since my front lower teeth decided they wanted to do a slow motion square dance. No mouthguard will fit. Eating a really good sandwich with a lot of ingredients now is like cutting cheese with a pair of pliers.
I still can’t get the CPAP to stop blowing air into my eyes, or to give me proper air instead of bursts of too much or too little. I’ve also read some worrisome Facebook posts about how simple soap/detergent doesn’t actually clean out the hose/mask germs enough.
I use mine every night, but I’m wondering how they know how often you’re using it? I’ve gotten one call asking how it was going, but that’s it.
They have computer chips in the machine. It puts the information on the cloud somehow. I don’t know tech stuff. What I do know is that the doctor, the CPAP company, and I can review the data. The doctor is able to see my scores and how often I’m using it, to make sure I’m in compliance, but also to make sure my therapy is going well. And I like to review my scores periodically from the AdaptHealth app.
The CPAP machine has made a huge difference in my life. I’m not sleepy during the day anymore.
I have an app that gives me my report every day on usage, leaks, how many times I removed the mask (it always thinks it’s one time, although I rarely remove it at all) and how many events per hour. I believe it’s the same info that’s sent to my doc.
The machine actually includes the number of times you take the mask off and put it back on, as one number. You took the mask off to when you woke up, so it’s 1. You still get a perfect 5/5 score in that category even if you take it off twice.
But I want it to say zero! And I want a pony.
Okay, I’ve had seven days with my CPAP. The mask is an AirFit F40 so it covers the mouth and then there are holes in the top for your nose to go over.
I can fall asleep well enough, but about two hours into sleeping I’m awakened by air escaping. Sometimes it makes a loud raspberry sound. I cannot figure out what is causing this as the seal is perfect when I fall asleep. I inevitably have to sit up, take the whole thing off and put it on again.
I had a theory the humidity was causing the mask to slip on my face, so I turned the tube temperature down a bit. Still had the same problem last night. I need some humidity otherwise my lips get really dry.
Otherwise it’s going okay I guess. I have no problem breathing through my nose.
Anyone had leakage problems like this? My sleep isn’t great from the wake-ups, though the app keeps giving me really high scores. I got a 99 last night!
Mine has the thingy that fits under the nose, and the Ring camera has shown that I sometimes adjust it without waking up. It makes a whooshing sound rather than a raspberry.
I’ve tried mine for a few months now and I still can’t get it to give enough air. After about 5-10 minutes I am so suffocating that I have to take the mask off. The provider won’t tweak the settings or let me adjust the settings, other than to turn ramp feature off.
Don’t know what model you have, but for mine, it was easy to find instructions on the Internet to go into expert mode. Ultimately, I didn’t change anything, but I wasn’t gonna be happy until I saw what was in there.
All I can add are my own experiences. My first mask fit over my mouth and nose, and didn’t fit well at all. I’d fall asleep on my back, but if I rolled to either side, the mask would shift just enough to create a small gap which created enough of a whoosh that it’d wake my wife, who would then elbow me in the ribs and wake me up. I attempted to readjust and tighten the mask before trying different masks. My current mask uses just a nasal pillow and I can move pretty freely in my sleep with no problems. Perhaps once every three or four months it might get dislodged enough to whistle, but I’m very happy with it. Don’t be afraid to make a change, either to a different size mask or different styles of mask.
Good luck!
What made the big difference for me was changing to a mask with the air hose attached at the top of my head, out of my way, not in my field of vision and just much less annoying and less likely to get bumped and knocked awry during the night.
See if you can get your supplier to fit you with that same nasal cushion and mouth mask but with the hose at the top of your head. The mask will be the same just the air hose attachment is vastly improved I think. Even the model number is virtually the same.
AirFit F30i Full Face CPAP Mask with Headgear – DirectHomeMedical
I think I may have posted this upthread, or maybe in another CPAP thread here, but I bought a hanger that clipped on to my headboard that held the hose up and above me. There are a bunch of different kinds if you search ‘CPAP hose holder’. It really made rolling over at night so much easier.
Or your spouse threatens to make you sleep on the couch. My husband’s snoring had gotten so bad that I made him go for one.
I knew - had known for years - that I had sleep apnea. My opinion is detailed here.
As one might guess, I dislike sleep studies. They are such a crapshoot in terms of whether they get any useful data - it took me FOUR to get enough “sleep” to detect enough apnea to be worth treating.
But I do believe that CPAP machines are helpful.
I found that while I didn’t necessarily feel better while using it, I was less likely to NEED to nap mid-afternoon - and I felt WORSE when I missed a night, dammit.
I’ve definitely got a love/hate relationship with mine. I’m pretty cavalier about skipping nights if I’m sick, or travelling, or (as in this past year) dealing with the aftermath of surgery and all its disruptions. Weight loss has improved things, though not enough to throw the thing in the trash….
Anyway - for the OP (and I now notice that this thread is 6 months old) or anyone in a similar situation, it can’t hurt to bring it up with the doctor. Untreated apnea can contribute to numerous other issues and while a study is no fun, and the machines are a minor hassle, it’s a comparatively cheap way to help with various health issues.
Finding the right mask is an ongoing struggle. The nasal pillows I’d used for years tended to leak, though it was a lightweight solution.
I tried a couple of different nasal pillows. Same issue, and/or they didn’t seem like they fit quite right. And with the machine I have now, the water tank NEVER lasted for more than 8 hours - sleeping in on Saturday? Yep, I’d wake up with that burning smell in my nose. Bleh. Part of the issue there is crummy tank design - there’s no reason the company couldn’t make the tank a tiny bit larger (it sticks into the end of the main unit and an extra centimeter or two of lengthy would make NO difference).
I got fitted again last year and came away with a “full face” mask that is kind of a hybrid of nasal pillows and mouth mask - it doesn’t go OVER the nose, but sits just under, as well as covering the mouth. I didn’t like it because it was ungainly - however, my leak rate was much lower and the water tank lasts the whole night. I was also fitted for a VERY minimal set of nasal pillows - I switched to them about 2 months ago and am having all the same issues I was with all the others with leaks. So the more intrusive one works better, dammit. I’ll likely switch back to that one soon.
I won’t ever do another in-lab “sleep” study. They just don’t give good data, IMHO, given the various discomforts associated with the process. I might be persuaded to do an at-home one, but I’d really, really, really rather not.
Mine is cloud-connected - the provider gets the info (and I can see it myself on a phone app). Insurance may require documentation of regular use or they’ll quit paying; Medicare is the same.
It is possible to tweak the settings by hacking into the provider menu - I don’t advise doing that without discussion (and the provider can also tweak it remotely) but one time when I’d been sick and couldn’t tolerate the full setting, I changed the range of my auto-adjusting device downward a bit.
One thing I’ve found with nasal pillows, that I did not have with the full-face version - and I didn’t realize it until I switched back to pillows: I tend to get a LOT of post-nasal drip gack backed up in my throat. No clue why. So in the morning I”ve got to try to maneuver that out through some weird throat muscle tricks that, if I’m not careful, will literally make me gag. Quite annoying.
I have nasal pillows, and within the first week or so I noticed a lot of leakage from my left nostril (I sleep with ear plugs, so it wasn’t quite obvious at first). Looking at my left nostril, it’s … weird. Like strangely long or something. Anyway, switching to the large nasal pillows mostly took care of it. When they sent me replacement supplies, they only sent medium pillows. I called and asked them to switch me to large pillows and they said “okey-doke!”. But apparently they mis-clicked something because my last two supply shipments have included no pillows, which is considerably less useful than the wrong size. I have to call again, and I hate calling people.